Vicious Cycles
by SawyerRaleigh
Summary: Lost in his own thoughts, Kusanagi wandered down the street until he found himself standing in a park beneath a fragrant sakura tree.


_Author's Note: Does "you are what you eat" apply to non-humans too? O.o Also if you're confused about the tv thing, read the footnote. :P Oh and the alternative title for this fic, as suggested by Celeste Aislin, is "The Taking Tree" XD  
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It was an odd tree all things considered but Kusanagi sat beneath it anyway. He wasn't surprised of course when it greeted him, having long since gotten used to this sort of thing. He was however surprised that it seemed to have a fondness for humans.

Most trees were rather bitter toward them for having killed so many of them when they had no way to defend themselves. It was much like a massacre, or like watching people go missing in countries where the government eliminated threats without mercy. But the trees hated him thinking like that too, because it compared them to humans. Kusanagi couldn't help it though. As overwhelming as the pain of so many plants and animals was, humans experienced it too. Maybe it was because despite his powers and more innate closeness to nature, he was human himself and there is a certain amount of identification that can never completely be broken with one's own origins.

It hurt to see the destruction of the Earth. It was like watching your two best friends fighting and know that they're really hurting one another but you can't stop them. Still, he could not bring himself to actively participate in the destruction of humanity.

The tree seemed to understand this and gave him something of a psychic equivalent of a sympathetic pat on the shoulder. He thanked it and leaned back against its trunk.

He watched a group of high school boys surround a trembling and protesting young girl who had gotten separated from her friends. As they coerced her into following them down a side street, Kusanagi debated following them and telling them to release the girl but he didn't, feeling guilt wash over him for a moment until he remembered how much hairspray the girl appeared to have used and how much her clothing looked to be made of synthetic, non-biodegradable materials. It wasn't his place to judge and he knew it but for a moment he simply couldn't muster the will to rescue her. As soon as the moment passed though, he felt guilty again and started to get up and follow them before the tree reminded him that he probably would not be able to find them at this point.

"She didn't deserve that though. Even if she was harmful to the environment, she didn't deserve it…" Kusanagi silently lamented to the tree, expecting the need for justification.

The tree seemed more intrigued by his comment though.

_What would she have had to do to deserve it?_ It wondered. _Is there a specific system to determining this?_

"Um… I don't think so." Kusanagi stumbled over its reaction.

_Oh._ The tree seemed disappointed.

"Come on, I won't hurt you."

Kusanagi turned his head and watched as a little girl sat patiently by a park bench, her arm extended beneath it, holding out a cracker. Both Kusanagi and the tree observed silently as the girl waited there for several long minutes, being as still as she could until a small, mangy cat with crooked whiskers and patchy fur cautiously crept out to nibble at the cracker. The girl remained still even as it crept gradually closer until it tentatively allowed her stroke its ears and scratch beneath its chin. Within moments she had the cat purring in her arms and batting happily at her swinging pigtails. The little girl giggled and nuzzled the top of its head affectionately.

"You're coming home with me tonight." She hugged the cat close and stood up, carrying the cat out of the park.

_Did she deserve that?_ The tree inquired curiously.

"Why wouldn't she deserve to find a cat in a park?" Kusanagi replied.

_I don't know; I thought this whole system of justice thing was your idea. _The tree seemed baffled.

Kusanagi gave the matter some thought. "I don't know, I guess I just don't really think in terms of whether not someone deserves something like that."

_Does "deserving" not matter when it's something good that happens?_

Kusanagi looked up into the gnarled branches, half-expecting to find a face in it somewhere.

He didn't see a face but he did look up in time to see a hawk snatch a baby bird just learning how to fly, plucking it out of the sky despite its terrified shriek cut short by a talon closing around and probably piercing its windpipe.

_Humans aren't the only ones who hurt nature._ The tree observed.

Kusanagi frowned at the ground.

"So people hurt nature and nature hurts nature." He picked up a leaf and watched it crumble in his grasp. "It seems like everything is working against nature."

_Oh?_

"Well isn't it?" Kusanagi thumped his head back against the tree's trunk, in a motion of self-penitence. "Maybe… maybe I should join the Dragons of Earth… just to even the score a little."

The tree didn't answer but seemed vaguely entertained, as though this were its version of a soap opera unfolding. It occurred to Kusanagi that if this tree were human it would be the sort to love television dramas.

_Oh I do love television dramas!_ The tree responded to his passing thought with such enthusiasm that Kusanagi found himself imagining it smiling and was completely thrown. Even other animals didn't really smile per se; it was a distinctly human reaction. And how on earth did the tree know about television dramas?

If the tree heard that thought as well, it chose not to answer.

_I especially love cop shows._ It mused. _And you know, they kind of prove a part of the equation you left out._

"What's that?" Kusanagi wondered, still trying to work out the entire television thing in his head.

_Humans hurt other humans too. _

Kusanagi raised an eyebrow. "I don't know that cop shows are a good source for "proof" about human nature. But I do think you have a point." He thought back to the young girl in the alleyway. "But does nature ever hurt humans?" He questioned.

The tree smiled again, but it was a very different kind of smile, one that left Kusanagi with a deep sense of unease.

_Injury goes in all directions from all sources. _

"But that doesn't make it okay!" Kusanagi protested. "It would be better if we could just learn to get along with each other don't you think?"

He could have sworn it wasn't a breeze but a dismissive wave that shook the tree's branches.

_That wouldn't really be possible. Life is by nature a struggle. You have to step on a few lives to preserve your own. _The tree informed him matter-of-factly. _Besides, it would just be rather boring if we all got along._

Kusanagi wasn't sure he could bring himself to accept or agree with this belief so he fell silent, merely watching the park teem with its own little domestic variety of life. The tree seemed to respect his wish for space until the sun began to sink below the horizon, throwing crimson rays and long shadows across the world.

_You should probably leave soon. Good things rarely come to those who stray beneath my blossoms at night._

Kusanagi didn't know what the tree meant but it left a cold feeling in his mind like a bitter aftertaste on the tongue. He stood up and began to walk away and then froze and turned back around.

"Your blossoms." He began slowly. "Why are they in bloom? It's nearly winter."

The tree didn't say anything but its response sent shivers down his spine nonetheless and he hurried away. There may have been parts of humanity that Kusanagi found repulsive, but there were parts of nature he did as well.

.

_I always figured that since the sakura tree basically consumes human souls it may also get to see their memories. As such I had an amusing thought about it discovering a love for human television. XD And the following conversation came to mind:  
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_"Seishirou you bastard!"_

_"What?"_

_"You killed him off before he got a chance to the rest of Lost! I wanna know how it ends! Don't kill again until the show ends so I can find out!"_

_"...that's going to be a while."_

_"I don't care!"_

_"Okay."_

_*six months later*_

_"Seishirouuuu."_

_So yeah. XD That and I always figured if it consumed human souls, maybe the tree would have adopted a vaguely human personality unintentionally, although it's still a tree so there's still something very inhuman about it...  
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End file.
